20160116 (bamboozle again)

"Fool me once, . . . . Fool me eight times, . . . ."

I take no comfort from Obama’s 

Assurances the U. S. is indisputably

The world’s most powerful 

Nation spending eight times

More on its military than 

The next most deluded country

On this planet. Nor does his 

Claim ours is the strongest

Economy quiet my fears when 

It comes with the news workers

Shall not be employed

Uninterruptedly and earn

A retirement with benefits.

In the same breath he admits

We have not found a way to 

Stem the flow of wealth more 

And more to the rich as we

On the bottom have to jump

Through hoops to keep ourselves

Wives and children fed, clothed,

And taught. He seemed resolved

To the notion that companies

Will be able to leap from nation

To nation for their greatest

Advantage—the promises of

Globalization being too great

For too many to be avoided

For long. Regrettably this will

Come at the cost of jobs for

Workers—a question he failed

To address except to supply the

Standard unsubstantiated

Bromide workers will be

Retrained for unforeseen

New needs. As many observed

His field is rhetorical, his forte

Elocution. He is as able seven

Years later to deliver a stirring

Message to a crowd of people

Hungry for high-minded leadership

From one who gets away with

Boyish innocence for failing

To reduce rancor in political

Discourse. Distributing bones

To the crowd he assigns curing

Cancer to his veep. He might 

Just as well throw in the promises

We’ve been made before: he’ll

Close Guantanamo; more new jobs

Paying less than half of the 

Jobs they replace will continue

To blossom. Sadly I’ve come

To realize he left so much unsaid:

The wars against women, teachers,

Public employees will be stopped;

We will restore proper payment to

Adjunct professors who today

Work like itinerant tenant farmers

In a public education stripped

Of substance by corporations

Who'd rather have docile employees

Than well-informed students they

Cannot dominate. Nor did he speak

Of how we will exist in a world

With other powerful nations,

When we recede, as we must, from 

Being the world’s policemen,

How we must forsake our 

Imperial overreach, as we must,

To take a place as an equal

Among equals, and so many

More. I was disappointed

But not surprised. Would

That his walk all these years

Have been anywhere near 

As good as his talk.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016